Night Changes
by wearesirius
Summary: Lily was passionate about everything she did. She cared about her grades and schoolwork more than anything. She never gave up once she became involved in something. She defended her causes with all she had. And for most of their schooling, Lily had hated James with passion.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Lily Evans was perfect. At least, that's how James Potter saw it. Her emerald eyes, her fiery red hair, her adorably freckled face, her kind heart. And the list went on and on and on.

James could list thousands of things that made Lily perfect, but those were the most obvious ones. However, James's favorite thing about Lily was her passion.

Lily was passionate about everything she did. She cared about her grades and schoolwork more than anything. She never gave up once she became involved in something. She defended her causes with all she had. And for most of their schooling, Lily had hated James with passion.

Yes, there were many things about Lily Evans that could be seen as "perfect."


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter 1:**

Or

"Barcelona"

I fell in love with the sparkle in the moonlight reflected in your beautiful eyes, I guess that it's destiny doing it right.

Disclaimer: I own neither Ed Sheeran nor Jo Rowling.

In later years, neither could remember an exact moment that it started. One thing they could agree on, however, was that something definitely started on the first day of their sixth year, September 1, 1976, and Lily Evans was 16 years old.

Lily stepped through the magical boundary at Kings Cross Station in London, England, and reappeared on the other side, on Platform 9 and 3/4, a little ways away from the Hogwarts Express.

She safely delivered her luggage trolley to the designated spot, and set off to find her friends. After walking a short distance, she spotted her friend group and ran towards them, bringing them all together in a group hug.

"Wh-what the HECK Lily?" spluttered Marlene McKinnon, but she was grinning as she fixed her sunny blonde hair back into her tight ponytail.

"She wasn't thinking. Yes, that must be it," Mary MacDonald grumbled, fixing her glasses. "Oh, sod off Mary, you know you love me," Lily teased with a wink and a grin, which in turn made the short, bespectacled girl grin in return as she shrugged.

Alice Prewett, the last of Lily's best friends, said, "Lils! It's been forever since I saw you two days ago!" Lily laughed and replied, "Maybe so Alice, you've got a lot to fill me in on, yeah? How's the Longbottom situation?" Alice and Frank Longbottom had been crushing mutually since about third year, and Lily suspected he would make it official soon.

This friendly banter was interrupted by the arrival of Sirius Black and James Potter. Lily was actually quite good friends with Sirius, but couldn't stand Potter. It didn't help, either, that he had been asking her out in the most horribly embarrassing ways since fourth year. Lily had, of course, turned him down at every point, because for one thing, she couldn't stand the bloke, and for another, she was pretty certain he did it mostly for attention.

That might have been slightly true, at least at first, but as time went on, James became slightly obsessed with her. Now, on the first day of their sixth year, James considered himself to be in love with Lily Evans. But he wasn't.

Not yet.

Lily would have denied it, but the truth of the matter was, she spent an awful lot of time thinking about James. At first, it was while plotting how to get back at him for humiliating her, which she accomplished many times over the years. Then, it grew into resentment for how he treated her best friend, Severus Snape. As of the end of last year, however, they were no longer friends, thanks to James' incessant tormentation of Snape, which led to him snapping during a fight, and he called Lily a 'mudblood,' which was a very derogatory term for a witch or wizard born to Muggle parents.

The group of friends - including James, although Lily did not consider him her friend - boarded the train, and claimed one of the coveted double compartments. James headed off to find the remaining two Marauders, Peter and Remus, and the rest settled in for the journey.

About 15 minutes later, the train had departed, and James, Remus, and Peter slipped back into the compartment.

Everyone snacked and chatted, catching up with the people they hadn't seen much over the summer. After about an hour, James stood up, saying, "Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs? MacDonald, McKinnon, Prewett, ...Evans? Fancy some lunch?" Everyone agreed, except Lily, who replied with, "No thank you. ...I've got to finish my Charms essay before we arrive." James shrugged and headed out the door, but Sirius said, "You know what Prongs? I think I'll stay back and have Evans help me on my essay, too." James looked at his best friend, and it was almost as if they had a silent conversation, before James nodded and filed out the door along with the others.

After the door slid shut, Sirius locked it with a charm and sat beside Lily. "All right there, Red?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Lily wasn't sure what to say, so she responded with, "Eh. I've been better, I've been worse. I just can't STAND Potter! He's so self righteous and bratty and spoiled! And always asks me out in the worst possible ways! And ugh!"

Sirius listened to her angry tirade, with a growing smirk. When Lily noticed this, she smacked him with the first thing she saw, which happened to be Alice's hat.

"Don't you dare laugh at me, Sirius Black! It's not a joke!" But even she was trying to repress a smile.

"Hey hey hey now," Sirius defended himself, "You've got to admit, it is kind of funny. And anyway, I still think you guys are meant to be together. You would be like Hogwarts' own power couple!"

Lily looked disgusted at that.

"It's never going to be like that, Sirius. You know that. Besides, you're one to talk. What's going between you and Marlene these days?"

Sirius's face fell as Lily asked this. "I don't know. At the end of last term, I thought we were good but... after everything that happened over the summer, I don't know what the hell we're doing."

The two friends both fell silent, reliving all the events that had gone on.

Mar and Sirius dated for all of fourth year and a little less than half of fifth year, when they broke up because of stress and school and typical 15 year old's dramas, none of which their friends would ever really understand.

They had patched things up by Easter, and were friends as if nothing had ever gone on between them by the end of the term.

Lily knew what specific night Sirius had been referring to when he said "over the summer," for she had been there, too.

~

"Oh, come on Lily, does it matter if it's at James Potter's house? Our whole house year is going, and it'll be fun."

Lily gave in to Marlene's pleads, agreeing to go to the start-of-summer party that the Marauders were throwing for their classmates at Potter's beachfront mansion.

Lily, Marlene, and Alice all flooed in together, emerging in a giant foyer. Everyone except Lily had been there before, so they worked together and made their way to a grand sunroom, where they found the Marauders, Frank Longbottom, and Alice's older twin brothers, Gideon and Fabian, sitting around.

James looked up when they walked in, asking, "Is this it?" Alice answered with, "Yes, I believe so, Mary told you she couldn't make it, right?"

James nodded in affirmation, saying, "Well, if we're all here, let's change first and then head out to the lake, yeah?"

The girls were shown to a room to change, and Marlene took Lily aside briefly.

"Hey, Lil. You know James is like a brother to me, and I love him more than anyone else. But don't forget, you're my best friend, and I would do anything for you. I can yell at James if he flirts with you, and I could set you guys up if you change your mind. I have a feeling that something will change tonight, and I just want to make sure that you know I'll do whatever you want when it comes to Jamie."

Alice had already gone downstairs, and Lily and Mar rushed to catch up.

The afternoon rapidly sped into night, and the teens soon found themselves on the top level of the Potter's pontoon boat, without a care in the world on that warm summer night under the stars with their friends.

As there always is at lengthy gatherings of 16 year olds, alcohol was eventually produced. The night progressed, and eventually Marlene and Sirius found themselves alone and tipsy and together on the top level of the boat.

To Sirius, the stars that night suddenly glowed a little bit brighter, and he fiddled with anything he could find to avoid looking at the girl he still harbored feelings for. He didn't think he could trust himself slightly drunk with them basically in underwear.

Marlene didn't know what she wanted, exactly, but in her current state of mind, she realized that she still had feelings for Sirius and that now that she acknowledged that fact, she wouldn't be able to un-acknowledge it.

Sirius's breath hitched slightly as Marlene sat across from him on the leather benches, now making eye contact for the first time all night.

Neither one said anything for a little bit, so Sirius nervously cleared his throat before saying, "Mar... I know I shouldn't say this, especially in our current states, but I can't fucking do it anymore. I can't bear being only your friend, I can't bear seeing you with other blokes, and I can't fucking bear not touching you."

He turned away, not expecting her to return his feelings, and was altogether surprised when he found her light frame sitting on his lap.

With any other couple, it might have been weird, but Marlene and Sirius naturally clicked, and it just felt like a breath of fresh air, being this close to Mar again.

She ran her hands through his hair, twisting around to look at him, and slowly brought her lips to his.. He kissed her back, relishing in the action after months of deprivation.

Marlene roke the kiss a few seconds later, saying, "Sirius, I'm so, so, sorry," with tears forming in her eyes as she fled the boat. Sirius sat there for hours in a haze, until Lily found him and told him Mar had suddenly left the party. "Mate, what happened?" she asked him.

~

All of this flashed through Lily and Sirius's heads as they say there in the train compartment on September 1.

Lily suddenly felt a flash of remorse for bringing this up, and said, "Oh, Sirius, I'm sorry for bringing it up. I'm sure you don't need any reminders of what happened, yeah?"

Sirius laughed half-heartedly, and pulled Lily into a hug. "I missed you Lils."

"I missed you too, and I really do love you Sirius, but really, I miss the sleep I lost much last night much more," she yawned.

And with that, Lily pulled her legs up onto the bench beside them, rested her head in Sirius's lap, and was instantly asleep.

Sirius gazed down at his girl best friend, wondering yet again when she would begin to see sense and fancy James back.

A few hours later, Lily was still asleep, and James returned to the compartment.

"Where the hell were you, and where the hell's everyone else?"

James laughed, being used to his friend's antics after 5 years. "We met up with Gideon, Fabian, and Frank at the trolley, and decided to stop by their compartment. The visit just… went on for longer than planned, and I wanted to check in on you and Evans."

Sirius sighed, saying, "Prongs… I dunno mate. I _think_ she's warming up to you a bit, as a mate, but…"

"I know, Padfoot, and this year I am going to stop fancying her. I'll try and become mates with her, because she seems like she'd make a lovely mate, but I will. not. fancy. her. It's gone on long enough, and I should get the hint by now."

James had made this resolution about 7 hours prior, when he woke up. This was the year. He would stop chasing after a bird who wouldn't let herself be caught, he would stop being hurt by said bird, he would become mates with Evans, and he would get himself a girlfriend who actually fancied him back. James thought this was a perfectly lovely and attainable list of goals for the year, but we will see how many of them _actually_ come true.


End file.
